Decorating

The search for a country home

A Kanata couple decide to move out of the city and into eastern Ontario

The house has many unusual architectural features, like the stone wall between the dining room and the sunroom.

Photograph by: Helga Loverseed
, The Gazette

Eastern Ontario's Lanark County has a rich repository of renovated heritage homes - principally log cabins and 19thcentury stone structures, built by Irish and Scottish labourers and engineers who worked on the Rideau Canal and subsequently settled the area.

In 2010, Kanata, Ont., residents Dave Conley and Jen Pagnutti, a couple in their 50s, decided they wanted to move to the country. (He's a consultant to the aquaculture industry; she works for the federal government). They were open to the idea of buying a heritage home, but they ended up with a place that was barely 20 years old - a 1993 Cape Cod house, a style more associated with New England than Ontario.

White clapboard, with blue shutters and dormer windows, the Cape Cod house stands atop a hill outside Ashton Station, a typical Lanark County hamlet with an inn, several log buildings and an old-fashioned general store. The two-storey home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms (plus a powder room), an open dining/ kitchen area with a glass-fronted, wood-burning fireplace, separate dining room, sunroom, living room and unfinished basement.

The house overlooks fields and a bank of firs, behind which meanders the Jock River, one of the many tributaries of the Rideau.

"We were supposed to check out a place in Carp but we were running late," Pagnutti recalled. "As we drove up the hill, we saw the house. The sun was starting to set, bathing the land with mellow light. It looked really beautiful."

In spite of their initial impression, it wasn't love at first sight. Close up, it became obvious that the property needed a lot of work.

"The yard was messy and the inside was painted in hideous colours. There were curtains on all the casement windows, which had walls between them, so there wasn't much light."

On further examination, however, the couple realized the house had loads of potential. It had, in fact, been custom-built, so there were lots of attractive architectural features like the multicoloured slate floors, a well-designed kitchen (the previous owner had renovated it to the tune of $30,000 only the year before) and, most interesting of all, a stone wall between the dining area and the sunroom, framed by enormous beams from an old barn. As well, the house, which sits on bedrock, had good "bones."

"We knew the house was solidly built but I was a bit worried about its age," Conley said. "After 20 years, all the big things typically start to fall apart - the furnace, the air conditioning, the windows, the roof.

"The furnace system and air conditioning - it was only 8 years old - turned out to be fine. We had them checked, so we were able to eliminate those big expenses and focus on other things."

Conley and Pagnutti did, however, have to replace the roof shingles, which they say were in really bad shape. The couple also replaced the windows in the dining/ kitchen area, as well as in the sunroom.

"The old windows only opened halfway and the walls between them meant that you really couldn't take advantage of the view," Conley explained.

"We asked the contractors if they could remove the walls completely and install one large continuous window in each room without compromising the structure of the house.

"After measuring everything, they said that wouldn't be a problem. These new windows are Jeld-Wen. They have vinyl frames and double-glazed thermal panes with argon gas. We chose that type of window because it cuts down on the fading of furniture that you get with rooms that have lots of light, but also because Jeld-Wens are pretty airtight. They've reduced our heating bills."

The next major project was to redesign the two upstairs bathrooms. The ensuite had a large, oval-shaped whirlpool bath ("an old fibreglass soaker tub"), which took up lots of space. It was removed and a new bath installed, surrounded by caramel coloured ceramic tiles and matching tiles for the floor.

The bathroom fixtures were modernized with white, rectangular porcelain sinks and cabinets from Ikea, a modern Scandinavian design that was practical as well. In Europe, bathroom units are designed in such a way that the plumbing pipes are installed against the wall, not directly under the sink as is common in North America, allowing for maximum storage space.

The next task was to repaint all the rooms.

"My ex-husband runs a painting company, so it was a given that we'd employ him. He's very fussy and pays a lot of attention to detail," Pagnutti said.

"I picked out all the colours and he and our older son spent over a week in the house, redoing every surface."

From being a mishmash of gaudy colours, the interior is now a harmonious blend of pastels, pale greys, charcoals and shades of chocolate with smart, white trim. Conley and Pagnutti also went shopping for some new furniture, like the high dining table, ringed by leather-covered bar stools and the sofa in the sunroom that has a built-in rocker at one end.

"We made do with most of the stuff we had already, but I couldn't resist that dining room table," Pagnutti said. "We found it in the Upper Room in Ottawa. When we have guests, they always remark on the view. Because we're sitting higher up than at a regular table, you can see right over the fields."

Outside the kitchen/dining area is a wooden deck, which, according to Conley, had been built on several levels, with not enough space to put a patio table and chairs.

"The back of the house was a dog's breakfast. The deck looked as if it had been built over a weekend when somebody had drunk too much beer!"

Conley spent "countless man-hours" sorting out the yard - an overgrown jungle of brush and weeds.

"Nothing had been groomed for years. Everything was just growing wild. I pruned trees, burned brush, pulled out tree stumps and removed a lot of the undergrowth."

Conley and Pagnutti have a couple more things they want to do - like replace the front door ("it lets in the air") and finish the basement - but, all in all, they have no regrets about buying their Cape Cod house. They're pleased with the way the renovations, which cost them in the region of $60,000, have worked out.

"We've got the best of both worlds," Pagnutti said. "We're living in a rural environment but within easy commuting distance of Ottawa. At the end of my workday, I just can't wait to get out of downtown."

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